Book Breaks

Book Break : “Diversity and Inclusion in Japan: Issues in Business and Higher Education” - A Round table discussion by authors - Lailani Alcantara, Yoshiki Shinohara and Yuko Takahashi

Monday, March 06, 2023, 18:00 - 20:30

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) have become the buzz words in homogenous Japan and is a top agenda in politics, business and other organizations struggling to reform. A timely book compiled by Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University—no strangers to diversity—discusses these important goals by bringing lively examples ...

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Book Breaks

Book Break: Roland Kelts, author of “The Art of Blade Runner: Black Lotus” - Anime Meets Hollywood

Tuesday, February 21, 2023, 18:00 - 20:30

The speakers will be Roland Kelts and Joseph Chou. The Hollywood Reporter calls Japanese animation (anime) “the world’s most bankable and Covid-resistant form of popular entertainment.” What’s behind anime’s explosive global appeal, and why is Hollywood so invested? Now Japan’s premier export, anime reaches massive ...

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Book Breaks

Book Break: Lawrence Repeta, author of “Japan’s Prisoners of Conscience: Protest and Law during the Iraq War”

Friday, December 23, 2022, 18:00 - 20:30

When Lawrence Repeta first took a spectator’s seat in Tokyo District Court in 1982, he was shocked to learn that the court prohibited spectators from taking notes during public hearings. His lawsuit resulted in a 1989 Supreme Court judgment that overturned a longstanding prohibition on ...

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Book Breaks

Book Break : David Joiner, author of "Kanazawa"

Thursday, December 01, 2022, 18:00 - 20:30

David Joiner’s novel Kanazawa was released in January 2022 by Stone Bridge Press. It is the first published literary novel set in the city of Kanazawa and Ishikawa prefecture. In this Book Break, Joiner will read from and discuss Kanazawa. Special focus will be ...

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Book Breaks

Book Break: Translators' Round Table

Tuesday, October 25, 2022, 18:00 - 20:30

The library committee will host an evening with three top translators from Japanese to English who will examine the deeper nuances of language in literature. The authors will discuss their personal journeys through their work to bring some of Japan’s most loved authors to a ...

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Book Breaks

Book Break: Yunshin Hong, author of “‘Comfort Stations’ as Remembered by Okinawans during World War II”

Wednesday, September 28, 2022, 18:00 - 20:30

The speakers will be Yunshin Hong and Robert Ricketts. Okinawa was the only Japanese prefecture to be invaded by US forces during the battle fought there in the spring of 1945. It was also the only part of Japan proper forced to accommodate a network ...

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Book Breaks

Book Break: Anthony Rowley, author of "Who Will Pay to Save the Planet? The $100 Trillion Question"

Wednesday, September 21, 2022, 18:00 - 20:30

We all know now that climate change is very much "for real" – and the question on many people's lips is, can we slow the process down sufficiently or quickly enough to prevent a climate disaster, or is it too late? But there is ...

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Book Breaks

Book Break: Aleksandra Babovic, author of "The Tokyo Trial, Justice, and the Postwar International Order"

Thursday, June 23, 2022, 18:00 - 20:30

The Tokyo Trial, 1946 to 1948, seen by many as victors’ justice, was a dark and painful episode in Japan’s immediate post-WWII history. In contrast to Germany with the Nuremberg Trials, Japan’s postwar politics never accepted the Tribunal’s verdicts. The government ...

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Book Breaks

Book Break: Christopher Gerteis, author of “Mobilizing Japanese Youth: The Cold War and the Making of the Sixties Generation”

Tuesday, June 14, 2022, 18:00 - 20:30

In Mobilizing Japanese Youth published by Cornell University Press in 2021, Christopher Gerteis examines how non-state institutions in Japan—left-wing radicals and right-wing ...

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Book Breaks

Book Break: Viktoriya Kim, author of “The Politics of International Marriage in Japan”

Thursday, April 14, 2022, 18:00 - 20:30

In The Politics of International Marriage in Japan, Viktoriya Kim, Nelia Balgoa and Beverley Anne Yamamoto unravel the web of historical, governmental, and cultural influences on international couples and their children in Japan. The book, published by Rutgers University Press in the series “The ...

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